‘Winning against a quality side gives lot of confidence’ : Mithali Raj

Mumbai, Mar 1 : Mithali Raj, the India Women one-day international captain, said the 2-1 series win over England, the defending World Champions, gives her team a lot of confidence.

India won the first two games of the three-match series here, before England got one back and clinched a dead rubber at the Wankhede Stadium by three wickets on Thursday. Raj, who also led India to a series win in New Zealand earlier this year, and in Sri Lanka and South Africa before that, cautioned against complacency after winning a series, given the ICC Women's Championship points that are at stake.

"Winning against one of the quality sides with full strength gives lot of confidence to this side," said Raj. "Only in New Zealand, we felt it was a one-sided game in the third ODI. But it was a well-fought match against Sri Lanka, which went till the last over, and also in South Africa when we played South Africa, so those matches were well-fought,"she said.

Raj said the team was determined to finish with a 3-0 scoreline after having sealed the series with back-to-back wins. "But this [issue] we did address and the girls do understand. We will definitely work on it, so that in the coming series, if we are in a similar position, we would like to make it 3-0," she said. While the series win was sweet, helping India maintain their No. 2 position on the Women's Championship table with 16 points, the absence of the Decision Review System was a spoiler. India had played with the DRS in New Zealand, but did not have it for this series. Raj called for a more consistent use of the system to help the players get used to the technology ahead of the big ICC events.

"We would love to have DRS because when it comes to big events like the ICC events, where we have DRS, we need to get a little more experience for the girls to understand the concept of DRS - how and when to take it," she said. "We had it in New Zealand, suddenly we don’t have it at home."

"If it is irregular, it gets difficult for the players to accept a concept like that. It has its own effects. It is good in a way and it is bad also. Some dismissals go your way, but at crucial stages, some dismissals don’t go your way. It’s part of the game," Raj added.(UNI)